The museum in Florence, Italy, that houses Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece the David issued a remarkable invitation recently to parents and students of a school in Tallahassee.
Come visit, the Galleria dell’Accademia said. See the statute for yourself.
The invite came after the forced resignation of the Florida charter school’s principal after a parent complained that sixth-graders had been exposed to pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included the sculpture. It was yet another eruption in the state’s ongoing culture wars, and it left Florida open to international ridicule.
Florence Mayor Dario Nardella even tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so she can be recognized there, saying, “Art is civilization and whoever teaches it deserves respect.”
Of course, the parents and kids probably aren’t hopping on a flight to Europe to take the museum up on the offer any time soon. But the invitation wasn’t about international travel anyway.